Rule of thirds for panoramic

[Clockdoc I]

I was wondering if the rule of thirds should be followed in a panoramic crop, I wanted to show the water as much as the sky in this shot so I cropped it down the middle. Does it work I guess if I had to I would show more of the sky.

[OsmosisStudios]

I think you could have used a bit less water, in this case. The rule of thirds generally applies: just place the horizon at the bottom 1/3 mark.

[fletch]

I think the rule of thirds may be even more relevant on the horizontal plane for panoramic shots. With such a defined line dividing top and bottom it splits the photo into two very thin strips.

I'm no expert but I think one key to a good pano is to get the eye to scan from left to right through the shot rather than up and down.

[Clockdoc I]

Thanks for your help here it is with less water

[jdepould]

Works better with more sky. The water isn't interesting enough in this particular image to put the horizon at the top third.

[oakwoodlott]

Definitely think the 2nd shot is better

[TheJbot]

Wow, yeah the 2nd one is much better. Nice shot.

My first post

[wulf]

I see that I'm swimming against the flow on this one: I prefer the original version, with two even blocks of sea and sky. The dividing point could perhaps be a little lower, as the hills intrude onto the sky which makes the darker portion of the image take up more than half the space but I think the result is more striking than 2/3 | 1/3.

In other words, if it were my image, I would be drawn to playing with treating the image as two vertically hinged panels instead of thinking so much about the rule of thirds.

Wulf

[TammyB74]

I think it really depends on what your focus is. I think the edit on the second picture brings your eye to the sky, however in your first picture my eyes are looking all over your image. So with that said, if it were my image, I would probably have cropped it like Wulf noted, as both parts of the picture are equally pleasing to me.

[Palladius]

I was thinking exactly the same as Wulf, although I definitely couldn't have articulated it that well!